DV is an AVI format that is pretty darn good for quality (and editing). Converting any file to and other type will cause some degrading. This is especially true if you change things like picture size/resolution.....anything to do with the picture.

DVD standards are based on MPEG2 which is also a very good format. However, DVD standards (standards that allow you to playback a DVD on your home DVD player), require certain specifications.

Burning software will "force" these standards in order to make things work.

So, what is happening is that your original AVI/DV file is being converted to MPEG2 with a certain picture size/resolution (720x480) and at 29.97 frames per second. The software also considers what amount of compression to use to make all the video/file on one DVD. If your original isn't the same specifications, then it gets converted with some loss.

The best way to avoid poor quality and loss during conversion is to start with the best "first" generation and then convert that. Also, if there are settings for video bitrate or video quality, then you want to increase those to maximum for the conversion.....however, this will produce a larger file that may not fit on the DVD. It's a trade off then.

Thanks for the information. Size is not an issue. I am working with an original file that is less than one gigabyte. I use Windows Movie Maker with the settings at the highest quality. When the Cyberlink product burns the DVD, the resulting MPEG file is noticeably poorer quality than the original.

I've tried to simply burn the AVI file to the DVD, but I get an error message that tells me it cannot be done.

Then Movie Maker (and the process of using it) is degrading your original video. By the time you burn the DVD you are using a second or third generation. And....if you are altering the picture size, colors....etc using movie maker, then you lose even more quality.

So, the only way to eliminate these problems (using your current programs) is to:

1. Alter the original video as little as possible doing only simple changes.
2. Make sure your settings are for MPEG2 not MPEG1 and high quality, which means a high video bitrate.
3. Since the DVD burning software seems to "force" the DVD standards, then that program will also lower the quality, when your existing video is different.

The only other alternative is to purchase another program that will accept the AVI/DV files directly to burn to a DVD or........pre convert the AVI/DV files to a non-compressed or lossless format like AVI/Huffyuv and then use Movie Make and burn later. That's the way I do it.

There is a open source free program called MediaCoder that will do that. But you'd be introducing another learning process.

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